KRASNA MALANKA - documentary film
directed by Dmytro Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk
Synopsis
Krasna Malanka is a story about people from Romanian village Krasna on the territory of Ukraine, which are getting prepared for the Malanka holiday. This holiday is a landmark event for everybody in Krasna, especially for young men, for them it’s the main initiation in life. Malanka is a carnival, a queer pagan show where everyone has his own part.
Treatment
Krasna Malanka is a story of Ukrainian village Krasna and its folk. The villagers get prepared for the Malanka holiday. This holiday is a landmark event for everybody in Krasna, especially for young men. That’s the main initiation in their life. Malanka is a carnival, a queer pagan show where everyone has his own part. The film will cover the villagers’ destinies in 5 short novels. Each novel starts with animation which vividly presents its protagonist. Each of them discovers a nature of one of Malanka’s characters.
Events had happened in different time and shot by different people, as representatives of a certain character archetype of the holiday. So to say, the same part but different actors. Heorhiy Illich, a mask master, will appear in all the stories. His story is a counterpoint in all the novels. Narratives and plots of all characters constantly intersect and form a huge canvas.
The main intent of the film is to show from the one side separated characters and from the other side the whole action of Malanka holiday. During four days the crew is following some characters: Anton and Mykola Pleshka, Dzike Bruzha, Heorhiy Illich (the Mask Master) and his grandson Illya Stepanovych, Illya and Ivan Illiuts. We watch them not only during the preparation to the holiday, but also in their everyday life with their problems and troubles.
The Malanka holiday becomes a kind of a mirror which reflects the essence of characters life, in metaphorical sense surely. Following them in difficult situation, we can see how they resolve it together starting with physical pain, which is the price they pay for wearing those Bear costumes and finishing with psychological pressure and family conflicts which are common during the preparation to the holiday. We are close to our characters during the most important moments in their life (marriage, funeral, christening of the child). We are also going through hard times with them (the Master’s grandson had an accident and his house burned to the ground) but in glorious moments we are also beside them ( the Master’s grandson survived the accident and took the first place in the competition).
The film also demonstrates the whole process of making, organizing and celebrating of Malanka holiday. We start with preparation of authentic masks and costumes as an example of artistic sublimation of each participant. Then we follow the main stages of preparation to the holiday till its magical end! The characters disclose all the particular meanings of this holiday for them during the film. They demonstrate their own attitude to Malanka showing inseparable bonds between Nature and Human Being. It is an effort to identify themselves. All the way the characters go during the film is a crusade to cognition of Nature as the main force. Folk carnival Malanka holiday helps to realize the unification of Nature and Human Being while during this performance they become inseparable.
As though strangers unite around the holiday. We reach this unification gradually, through the little stories. In the end, they’ll become a unity and will stand on the same basis.